I don’t find myself agreeing often with Jon Stewart but every once in a while he actually understands when “BS” is being served by this administration and does quite well with humor in covering his concerns. Yesterday on the Daily Show, Stewart went to task regarding Obama’s claim that he didn’t know about the IRS scandal until last Friday when he heard it on the news. Really, Mr. President? How can it be that the President of the United States, the CEO of the country, did not hear of the IRS targeting groups and individuals who are conservative leaning in their values and views until he watched it on TV?

News reports and revelations are reporting that the IRS was in fact targeting groups and individuals several years prior to initial reports of 2012. In fact, there are now at least 6- 8 members of Congress, all Democrats, who are being tied to this scandal with letters written by them demanding that the IRS take issue of tea party or conservative organizations. Just one example is Senator Carl Levin (D, Mich.) as reported by the New York Times. Apparently Sen. Levin pressed the IRS to investigate tax-exempt statuses of conservative non-profits.

“Organizations are using Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(4) to gain tax exempt status while engaging in partisan political campaigns,” wrote Levin in one letter on July 27, 2012. “Making the problem worse is that the IRS knows there is a problem because of the public nature of the activity but has failed to address it.” Sen. Levin asked whether the 12 organizations that discovered his scrutiny “applied for [tax-exempt status]; and if so … received the described exemption for political activity from the IRS.” Levin’s list contained nine conservative groups, including Club for Growth, Americans for Tax Reform, and Americans for Prosperity. It also included two liberal groups and one centrist group.

The Left is trying to place the blame on this scandal squarely at the feet of the Citizens United decision with the Supreme Court; however they don’t want to be reminded of the liberal/progressive groups and individuals who were never targeted, yet serves the same purpose supposedly. (Isn’t that right Media Matters?)

Attorney General Eric Holder has called the IRS actions “outrageous and unacceptable” and will investigate–and yet this is the same guy whose own department is involved in yet another scandal with tapping records and phones lines of the Associate Press. When pressed by reporters, AG Holder justified his department’s power grab by suggesting that the AP was leaking “very important and confidential information” about a foiled terror plot. In response to that explanation, AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt protested the massive intrusion into AP’s newsgathering activities in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, May 13.

In the letter Pruitt states:

“There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters. These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s newsgathering operations, and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know.”

“We regard this action by the Department of Justice as a serious interference with AP’s constitutional rights to gather and report the news.”

President Obama is also stating he didn’t know about this bit of news either until he watched “the news”.

Is anyone else seeing a pattern here? Why is Obama finding out vital information via television? Doesn’t the president have a Chief of Staff to update him about important events?

(Worth noting, Vice President Biden is nowhere to be found and has been eerily absent from any news cameras. Also we have also recently learned that Jay Carney really understands the meaning of the word “if”, using the word quite frequently when fielding questions from the press corp. They definitely have the whole “blame the other guy” game plan going for them…)

Moving on to Benghazi, Obama recently told reporters in a press conference that he didn’t think the revelation of the talking points changing 12 times was anything but a “side show” headed by the Republicans. I suppose in Obama’s mind it’s no big deal that on November 28, 2012 his press secretary Jay Carney stated that there had only beenone minor change of only one wordin the talking points handed to Ambassador Susan Rice. Democrats in Congress and the liberal media are also trying to blame Benghazi on Republicans because austerity measures cut the budget for security for the embassies (so they suggest). Apparently they did not watch the news when it was reported in prior hearings that Asst. Secretary of State Charlene Lamb was asked the very question, “Did budget cuts affect security measures in Benghazi” to which Ms. Lamb answered “No”? Isn’t this a classic example of “politicizing”, Democrats?

It isn’t often when we see three major news stories break within weeks of each other and frankly this administration is not handling the attention very well. When liberal Obama cheerleaders like MSNBC criticize this administration for their handling of the three events, it should make everyone take notice. And liberals cannot blame “Faux News” on this one, although it is humorous to wonder if it was Fox News that President Obama was watching when he “discovered” so many major stories. After all, his media lapdogs were ignoring said stories until it was no longer plausible to keep their heads buried in the sand.

Bottom line, we should all remember that no matter which political party is in charge, our government should be accountable to the American people, period. We should demand answers and real transparency. We should also take great pause when we witness the fact that “big government” can become an overreaching monster when left unattended—sort of like the classic horror film “The Blob”, spreading and growing and consuming everything in its path. No matter which political side you lean, things like this will affect all of our freedoms and livelihood and it should scare all of us equally.

About the Author

South Carolina PolitiChick Michele Toth served as producer and co-host of a popular Fox News affiliate station WNRR1380 and still fills in regularly as guest host for the Austin Rhodes Show on WGAC 95.1 FM in Augusta, Ga. Michele has interviewed such guests as Ambassador John Bolton, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Marco Rubio, Economist Peter Schift, and many more. Michele also has assisted as a social media strategist for political campaigns in both South Carolina and Georgia. Michele holds a Masters Degree in Management and Leadership and currently works as an Administrator for a large healthcare entity in Augusta, Georgia. Her articles have been seen on the Daily Caller and several other conservative media sites. You can follow Michele on Facebook and also on Twitter @mychel and see more of her writing/articles on her website chelholt.com.

Join the conversation!

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse.